Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinases (PI3Ks) comprise a family of lipid kinases that catalyze the transfer of phosphate to the D-3′ position of inositol lipids to produce phosphoinositol-3-phosphate (PIP), phosphoinositol-3,4-diphosphate (PIP2) and phosphoinositol-3,4,5-triphosphate (PIP3) that, in turn, act as second messengers in signaling cascades by docking proteins containing pleckstrin-homology, FYVE, Phox and other phospholipid-binding domains into a variety of signaling complexes often at the plasma membrane ((Vanhaesebroeck et al., Annu. Rev. Biochem 70:535 (2001); Katso et al., Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 17:615 (2001)). Of the two Class 1 PI3Ks, Class 1A PI3Ks are heterodimers composed of a catalytic p110 subunit (α, β, δ isoforms) constitutively associated with a regulatory subunit that can be p85α, p55α, p50α, p85β or p55γ. The Class 1B sub-class has one family member, a heterodimer composed of a catalytic p110γ subunit associated with one of two regulatory subunits, p101 or p84 (Fruman et al., Annu Rev. Biochem. 67:481 (1998); Suire et al., Curr. Biol. 15:566 (2005)). The modular domains of the p85/55/50 subunits include Src Homology (SH2) domains that bind phosphotyrosine residues in a specific sequence context on activated receptor and cytoplasmic tyrosine kinases, resulting in activation and localization of Class 1A PI3Ks. Class 1B PI3K is activated directly by G protein-coupled receptors that bind a diverse repertoire of peptide and non-peptide ligands (Stephens et al., Cell 89:105 (1997)); Katso et al., Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 17:615-675 (2001)). Consequently, the resultant phospholipid products of class I PI3K link upstream receptors with downstream cellular activities including proliferation, survival, chemotaxis, cellular trafficking, motility, metabolism, inflammatory and allergic responses, transcription and translation (Cantley et al., Cell 64:281 (1991); Escobedo and Williams, Nature 335:85 (1988); Fantl et al., Cell 69:413 (1992)).
In many cases, PIP2 and PIP3 recruit Akt, the product of the human homologue of the viral oncogene v-Akt, to the plasma membrane where it acts as a nodal point for many intracellular signaling pathways important for growth and survival (Fantl et al., Cell 69:413-423 (1992); Bader et al., Nature Rev. Cancer 5:921 (2005); Vivanco and Sawyer, Nature Rev. Cancer 2:489 (2002)). Aberrant regulation of PI3K, which often increases survival through Akt activation, is one of the most prevalent events in human cancer and has been shown to occur at multiple levels. The tumor suppressor gene PTEN, which dephosphorylates phosphoinositides at the 3′ position of the inositol ring and in so doing antagonizes PI3K activity, is functionally deleted in a variety of tumors. In other tumors, the genes for the p110α isoform, PIK3CA, and for Akt are amplified and increased protein expression of their gene products has been demonstrated in several human cancers. Furthermore, mutations and translocation of p85α that serve to up-regulate the p85-p110 complex have been described in human cancers. Finally, somatic missense mutations in PIK3CA that activate downstream signaling pathways have been described at significant frequencies in a wide diversity of human cancers (Kang at el., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102:802 (2005); Samuels et al., Science 304:554 (2004); Samuels et al., Cancer Cell 7:561-573 (2005)).
In some tumors the p110δ isoform, PIK3CB is amplified or over-expressed. In addition, studies indicate that tumors driven by PTEN loss may be sensitive to p110β rather than p110α. (Jia et al., Nature, 454:776-779 (2008). Wee et al., PNAS 105 (35), 13057-13062 (2008); Liu et al., Nature Rev. Drug Discovery 8:627-644 (2009)).
Both p110δ and p110γ are expressed primarily in the hematopoietic system and appear to play significant roles in leukocyte signalling (Liu et al. Blood 110(4), 1191-1198 (2007)). However, they do also play roles in some cancers (Knobbe et al., Brain Pathol. 13, 507-518 (2003); Kang et al. PNAS 103(5), 1289-1294 (2006)). p110δ expression is restricted to leukocytes pointing to its potential role in leukocyte-mediated diseases (Vanhaesebroeck et al. PNAS 94(9), 4330-4335 (1997)). p110δ is upregulated in blast cells in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia, where it plays a key role in cell survival (Sujobert et al., Blood 106(3), 1063-1066 (2005)) indicating its potential as a target in leukaemia and other haematological malignancies. p110δ activation plays an important role in the development of B-cell malignancies and therefore inhibition of p110δ could be used to treat B-cell malignancies such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), plasma cell myeloma and Hodgkin's lymphoma (NH) Castillo et al., Expert Opin. Investig. Drugs 21, 15-22 (2012)).
These observations show that deregulation of phosphoinositol-3 kinase and the upstream and downstream components of this signaling pathway is one of the most common deregulations associated with human cancers and proliferative diseases (Parsons et al., Nature 436:792 (2005); Hennessey at el., Nature Rev. Drug Disc. 4:988-1004 (2005)).
Published international patent application WO2007/084786 describes substituted pyrimidine molecules that inhibit PI3K.